Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Clearing Things Up
Monday
November 4, 2002
"The morning is for you
And the air is free
And the birds sing for you
And your positivity"
-Suede "Positivity"
Better times today. Work was a cluster, but Neal and I did the best we could with the next-to-impossible hand we were dealt. You do what you can do, and that's all you can do.
My friend Adam from Orlando just called me. He gives a strong recommendation for Punch-Drunk Love. He said some people expecting slapstick Adam Sandler walked out of the movie. Hey, I love Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but this is something totally different we're talking about here.
Jeff Werner dropped me a line to say that The Slice (restaurant/bar next to the University of Evansville) now has Bass on tap. Good for them. I love that place -- the potato pizza, the alcohol, the way they fought UE and won (when UE used its political influence to stop them initially from receiving a liquor license). When I think of The Slice, I think good things.
There's some things that have confused me for awhile, or which I've never heard a plausable explanation for. Maybe you readers can clear some of this up for me.
-Why are some plurals bastardized? In particular I mean how money is sometimes referred to as "monies" and people as "persons". This only seems to happen in certain situations -- like "no persons of unknown origin allowed". Why persons and not people?? And with monies, in the case of "any monies allocated to you now go to the government", that sort of context. What's wrong with "money"? Am I asking too much here?
-Why are there laws against age discrimination for people 40 and above, but not below? How did this law come to be? Why does "ageism" only exist on the high end? You're too young is acceptable, but you're too old isn't? And why is it that senior citizens can get discounts for the simple sake of being old? This absolutely baffles me. It's one thing to have lower insurance rates (though even that seems questionable at times), but why should being 66 and not 54 mean you should get 10% off at Long John Silver's? Don't get me wrong, I respect the elderly. But why do restaurants and businesses offer things like that? Is it a business thing? The AARP cartel leaning on them? Or what?
-On another note, how is it that there aren't more voting places on college campuses? Thousands of eligible voters, and no places to vote? They have the motor voter laws, why not something similar for colleges? Then again, maybe I'm asking too much of the 18-20 age group (who don't vote and consequently have their rights pissed on by an old-skewing electoriate).
-Why is there still a toll on the Crosstown Expressway, when it's paid for itself 20-times over in tolls since it opened in the 1980's?
-What's up with children being tried as adults? Who came up with that? So you'll charge a 17-year-old with murder, but god help us all if you're selling cigarettes to them. If there's a line, there should be a line, and that's it. The 21 drinking age is a farce. I mean, if we ("we" being the population) want the age to be considered an adult as 21, then make it that across the board. But this hit-and-miss picking and choosing makes a mockery of the law. I'm talking gambling, gun laws, etc. that specifically discriminate against young adults. And yeah, I'm 25, but guess what, it doesn't mean that I think young adults should have their rights violated just because that's what I faced as a young adult.
Enough questions. Tomorrow is election day, and yes I'm going to vote (as soon as I get home from work). Me having a vote for the school board is rather ridiculous, as I don't have any kids. But hey, it's my right. Some of the amendments on the ballot are ridiculous. The Class Size amendment in particular is absurd in my personal opinion. It would bankrupt the state. I'm all for good schools, but this arbitrary cap will come with an obscenely high price tag. But, education is a hot-button issue. The pregnant pig amendment is prepostorous. For those of you not in the know, it's an amendment that would outlaw the caging of pregnant pigs. That warranted an amendment spot?!? Give me my ham sandwich, but don't remind me where it came from, eh?
One last thing... the NFL is impossible to figure out. Jets blowing out the Chargers in San Diego?!? Go figure...
| 
